David Davis spends just minutes in Brussels to try and win round negotiators over our EU nationals plan as Brexit talks begin in earnest

DAVID Davis made a flying visit to Brussels today as he spent just minutes with EU negotiators as the Brexit talks began in earnest.

He is hoping to win round Michel Barnier to Britain's plan to guarantee the future rights of European nationals living in the UK amid deep divisions back home.

But the Brexit Secretary held talks with Michel Barnier for less than two hours before heading back to London – leaving staff to take on gruelling round of discussions.

The pair appeared alongside each other at the EU’s headquarters for a photocall, where Mr Davis said they had made a “good start” at last month’s preliminary talks - but it was now time to “get to the nitty-gritty”.

Another picture was then released of them and their staff sat either side of a discussion table, in which Mr Davis was mocked for not having any notes – while his EU counterpart turned up with binders full of documents.

But despite the talks set to continue until Thursday – the Cabinet minister soon left the Berlaymont building and headed back to London, and will not back in Brussels until later in the week.

British officials played down the incident, saying there had not been no “walk out or drama” and had been agreed in advance.

They said the plan was always to have Mr Davis arrive for the start of the round of talks, then leave and allow other members of the negotiating team work through the technical issues.

This morning Mr Davis pointed to four categories where they needed to make progress on this week: “The issue of citizens’ rights, the issue of finance, of separation and of course, separately, Northern Ireland.”

The Cabinet minister added: “For us it’s now incredibly important we make good progress, that we negotiate through this and identify the differences, so we can deal with them, and identify the similarities, and reinforce them.

“And now it’s time to get down to work and make this a successful negotiation.”

Mr Barnier told the watching media they would not be taking questions, saying they must wait until Thursday when the round of talks end, adding: “Now we have to work.”

The meetings are taking place against a backdrop of increasingly bitter and public feuding among Theresa May’s ministers over the Government's Brexit strategy.

At the weekend Chancellor Philip Hammond angrily accused Cabinet rivals of trying to undermine his agenda for a "softer" business-friendly exit, prioritising jobs and the economy.

And his allies blasted Michael Gove for reportedly being behind the “smear campaign” of leaking details from last week’s Cabinet meeting.

But one unnamed Cabinet minister was reported have hit back, claiming Mr Hammond was part of an attempt by "the Establishment" to prevent Britain ever leaving the EU.

The Daily Telegraph quoted the minister as saying: "What's really going on is that the Establishment, the Treasury, is trying to f*** it up. They want to frustrate Brexit."

The rowing has forced Mrs May to get involved, who will lay down the law in tomorrow's Cabinet to try and prevent further leaks.

It is not much better abroad, as the mood between London and Brussels has soured following a series of public spats in recent weeks.

It began with the publication of what Britain said was a "fair and serious" offer to guarantee the future rights of the 3.2 million EU citizens living in the UK - and in return the 1.2 million British ex-pats residing in the EU.

But the proposal to grant EU nationals "settled status", effectively indefinite leave to remain, was immediately dismissed by European Council President Donald Tusk as "below our expectations".

And Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson then fanned the flames when he said Brussels could "go whistle" if it expected the UK to pay a hefty "divorce bill" in respect of its outstanding financial obligations.

Mr Barnier, who has made clear that he is not prepared to start talks on a trade deal until there has been sufficient progress on the financial settlement, retorted icily he could not hear any whistling, "just the clock ticking".

That row has seemingly been defused however, after a written Government statement acknowledging Britain had obligations to the EU which would continue after the UK had left was quietly published at the end of last week.